In addition to supporting national campaigns, Herefordshire FOE engages with local environmental decision making. At the moment, one of the most important processes in which we are engaged is the Local Development Framework, the new local planning system being drawn up by Herefordshire Council.
The Council recently consulted on the 'Core Strategy' for the Local Development Framework. Our full response is available as a pdf file. Our main recommendations are that:
- The Core Strategy should have overarching policies on climate and sustainability.
- The Core Strategy should make a commitment to large, early and steady reductions in carbon emissions due to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security, measured against specific targets with a robust baseline.
- The Core Strategy should have general policies on transport and retail.
- The Core Strategy should take a wider view of energy so that the priority is placed on reducing the overall demand for energy and that energy efficiency and generation are always connected to managing demand.